The Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration, which oversees settlement planning in the West Bank, has approved the construction of 3,426 homes in three settlements, two government ministers announced on Wednesday.
After a monthslong lull in West Bank construction approvals, the large settlements of Efrat and Ma’ale Adumim will be expanded by 694 and 2,402 new homes, respectively, and 330 homes will be added to the smaller settlement of Kedar, according to a notice posted on X by Settlements Minister Orit Strock.
The notice indicates that the homes in Ma’ale Adumim and Kedar are now at the public comment period stage, while those in Efrat have been advanced to final approval.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, under whose aegis the committee falls, had mooted the latest expansion on February 22, calling it an “appropriate Zionist response” to a terror attack outside Ma’ale Adumim earlier that day, in which one man was killed and 11 people were injured, including a pregnant woman.
“The enemies try to harm and weaken us but we will continue to build and be built up in this land,” Smotrich wrote on X on Wednesday, announcing the success of his efforts.
Shlomo Ne’eman, chairman of the Yesha umbrella group of West Bank settlements, welcomed the Higher Planning Committee’s decision.
“Following many months of delaying the meeting, and especially during these difficult times, the continuation of construction in Judea and Samaria is the most appropriate Zionist response,” said Ne’eman in a statement, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.
Settlement leaders have been pushing for the committee to convene in order to get the ball rolling on new home approvals in West Bank settlements. According to Hebrew-language media reports, the council had not met since June, due to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Smotrich’s February 22 announcement of renewed West Bank construction elicited outrage from the administration of US President Joe Biden. Following the minister’s announcement, the White House restored a US policy — altered by the previous administration — deeming settlements inconsistent with international law.
“Our administration maintains firm opposition to settlement expansion and in our judgment, this only weakens — doesn’t strengthen — Israel’s security,” Blinken said at a press conference in Buenos Aires on February 23, shortly after the settlement expansion was announced.
Reporting on the announcement, Kan public broadcaster noted that Smotrich had already been lobbying the government for weeks to resume West Bank construction, but was rebuffed out of deference to the Biden administration. According to Kan, government officials saw in the Ma’ale Adumim terror attack an opportunity to go forward with the construction.
Smotrich said in his Wednesday post on X that a record 18,515 homes have been approved in the West Bank over the past year since the hard-right government took power.
The international community, along with the Palestinians, considers settlement construction illegal or illegitimate, and an obstacle to a two-state solution. Over 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank, which was captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for a future state.